The one good thing about being surrounded by Contractors, Hei thought, was that people who didn’t give a damn about anything didn’t care to give you shit for anything either.

They had an aging teleporter who never bothered to put his clothes back on anymore, a gravity manipulator who sang for her remuneration but couldn’t hold a tune to save her life, and countless others with ridiculous, obnoxious, embarrassing or just plain baffling habits and payments. The Contractors didn’t bat an eye.

Contractors were great, Hei thought for possibly the first time in his life as he reached his tent, having successfully evaded the notice of his fellow humans by repeatedly hiding behind aforementioned apathetic superpowered sociopaths. Contractors were the best.

So of course, of course, he would duck into the tent to be greeted by Pai and Amber – the latter of whom took one, startled look at him before promptly bursting out laughing.

"Why?" he sighed. "Why are you like this?"

"I thought you liked it when I acted more human around you," she snickered.

"Not right now."

"Well, tough luck, pretty boy."

The look he shot her just made her laugh harder.

"You must be so embarrassed," Pai said blandly. "Right? This is the kind of situation that always makes you grumpy and –"

Pai made an exaggeratedly innocent face, but he could see the corners of her mouth start to tremble right before he opened his locker and dug in, looking for his razor.

Of all the Contractors in the world, he had to be stuck with these two.

"Don’t worry, brother, it’ll grow back," Pai said, when he put a towel over his head. He closed the door of his locker to find her smiling at him. It was almost enough to mollify him. And then: "And I’m sure only a quarter of the camp will laugh at you in the meantime."

Amber let out a renewed snort of laughter.

"Correction, a quarter and one."

Not dignifying either of them with a reply, Hei stomped off to the showers to shave the parts of his head that still had hair on them after his near-scalping experience during training just now.

He took it back. Contractors were just as bad as all the rest of them.